Claire de Lune
by keelafairie
Summary: One night, well after reaching Xadia and preventing a war, Rayla is visiting the princes in their castle. It's late, it's a full moon, and she can't sleep. She finds her way to the music room, and fluff ensues. [originally posted to ao3 post season 1]


It was strange, walking through the human's palace as if it were her own. Even after a week she still wasn't used to the vaste halls, of the humans that would stare at her, yet never say anything more than a passing greeting.

After all, she was the one who'd teamed up with their two princes to stop the war between the two kingdoms.

It was night now, though, and Rayla had quickly learnt that humans preferred to sleep at this hour. There was a different story for her, though. It was a full moon. She couldn't force herself to fall asleep, not when the moonlight consistently charged her body with it's power.

The darkness was like a blanket that drifted over her, and the night air flowing through a nearby window held a mid-autumn chill.

She found herself at the entrance of a room she'd never seen before. This wasn't the sleeping quarters of the castle, far from it, and she didn't sense the presence of anyone from the other side of the large double doors, so Rayla cautiously pushed the door open and entered.

The walls were lined with countless variations of sting instruments. Lyres sat in rows, a large harp leaning in one corner, and various pan pipes and flutes were arranged on a multiple small tables. What caught her eye was the single large, black instrument in the center of the room, positioned in front of a window that almost reached the ceiling and encircled the strange instrument with moonlight.

The full moon was visible in the wood's polish.

Rayla approached it, opening the small lid by the stool and tracing her fingers over the monochrome keys.

She pressed one of them down, and it's sound rang out through the room.

"So this is where you went."

Rayla jerked back, spinning on her heels to face the entrance, where a boy stood leaning against the door's frame.

"They... they don't have this instrument back home. In Xadia, I mean," she explained, her right hand moving from where it sat on the keys to her arm.

"It's called a piano," Callum explained, quietly closing the door to the room and moving to join Rayla at the instrument.

He opened up the bench, shuffling through the papers within it for a few moments before pulling out a few sheets, setting them on the music stand.

Sitting down, and inviting Rayla to join him on the bench, he began to play the music that lay in front of him.

Rayla leaned against the prince, her head resting on his shoulder as she looked at the handwritten music.

"My mother requested for this song to be added to the music collection a while back," Callum mentioned, "It was the one song I managed to learn before she died."

"It looks so complicated," Rayla mentioned, "I'm not sure I'd be able to do it with my hands the way they are."

Callum smiles slightly, "Most of the chords only require four fingers, and anything else you can play similarly to a scale, and use the pedal to make them sound as if they're played together."

The key changed, and Callum winced as he played a flat instead of a sharp, "I mean, it took me two years to learn how to play this song. Granted, I had absolutely no musical knowledge before then."

Rayla leaned further into Callum's warmth, letting the music flow through the room and engulf her in its sweet melody.

Before she knew it, she felt the full moon's power slowly slipping out of her grasp, her eyes gently drooping as she listened to the song.

"What is it called?"

"I'm sorry?"

"The song, does it have a name?"

Callum glances over to Rayla, letting the tempo of the music drop dramatically.

"It's called Claire de Lune. The title is in an old human language not used much in Katolis anymore. It translates to 'moonlight'."

Rayla nodded, her eyes slipping closed with the melody of the song ending. Her breathing grew slow and quiet as the elf fell into a light sleep.

The instrument went silent, and Callum moved to fold the paper music back together again.

He planted a gentle kiss on Rayla's forehead, moving to pick the elf up and stand, quietly making his way out of the music room and back to the sleeping quarters.

He couldn't help but notice how Rayla's hair seemed to glimmer in the dimness, just like moonlight.


End file.
